A common optical recording medium is the well-known compact disk (CD). Over the years CD format has evolved from the initial CDDA audio format (Red Book) to a whole family of formats covering different applications. Some of these formats support a mixture of CDDA format and a variety of data formats on the same disk. Examples for such formats are CD-ROM and CD-ROM-XA. In addition, the music industry has recently released various kinds of audio CD formats such as CD-plus and mix-mode CD. These formats are not totally compliant with the CDDA format. This poses difficulties for multi-format CD players, since the players have to determine the format of the audio content on the optical disk.
Format Definition:
CDDA:
CDDA format is the so-called compact disk and is specified in the IEC 908 standard (known as Red Book format).
CD-ROM/CD-ROM-XA:
The CD-ROM/CD-ROM-XA format describes the extension of CD to store computer data (known as yellow book format).
Mix:
Mix format (so-called mix-mode) comprises a combination of CDDA and CD-ROM/CD-ROM-XA tracks, usually one data track plus up to 98 audio tracks.
Others:
Other formats excluding the above formats.
JP 101 249 78 discloses a method and an apparatus, which allows to discriminate whether a specific track of a CD-ROM is a data track or in fact an audio track conforming to the CDDA format. This discrimination enables a multi-format CD player to reproduce audio tracks stored on the CD-ROM while at the same time preventing the erroneous reproduction of data tracks stored on the CD-ROM, which could otherwise lead to destruction of devices such as loudspeakers connected to the multi-format CD player. The discrimination between both types of tracks is based on additional four-bit control attributes for each track, which are included in the table of contents (TOC) of the disk, indicating if a track is a data track or an audio track. This additional attributes are evaluated by an information class distinction means before starting reproduction of the tracks, and only audio tracks are reproduced. The disclosed method has the disadvantage that if the information in the TOC is partially corrupted for example due to physical damage or errors introduced due to improper master disk production procedures, discrimination between audio tracks and data tracks might fail and some audio tracks might not be reproduced.